North Carolina coach Butch Davis watched his team surrender a paltry 30 rushing yards in a victory against The Citadel last week. With backups playing most of the final quarter, it is an even more impressive number.

The shutdown defense was hardly surprising. The 19th-ranked Tar Heels are huge in their defensive front, boasting a pair of 300-pounders at the tackle spots and a couple of massive defensive ends in E.J. Wilson (6-foot-2, 280 pounds) and Robert Quinn (6-4, 270).

Wilson is one of the best in the country at his position, and that front is loaded with experience.

One would assume Davis might feel a certain level of security with that group, yet his biggest concern this week is UConn’s running-back tandem of Jordan Todman and Andre Dixon.

“They have a lot of speed,” Davis said. “You can see their ability to run, change direction, cut back. They can turn a minimal gain into a big gain because of their speed. Donald Brown was more of a punishing, grind-it-out, between-the-tackles runner. Both of these guys have big-play ability.”

There is no doubt about that. Dixon was the Huskies’ leading rusher in 2007 before Brown came out of nowhere to lead the NCAA in rushing last year.

He has the know-how. Todman, a speedster, is still learning his way around college football, but he showed an ability to read and wait for blocks in Saturday’s victory at Ohio.

Dixon ran for 100 yards in the opener and Todman gathered 157, making them the first UConn duo to each amass 100 rushing yards in the same game since Brown and D.J. Hernandez did it against Pittsburgh in 2006.

But they’re not playing against Ohio this time. They’re going against the No. 19-ranked team in the country, one with a defensive front that is a long way from easy to handle.

“They’re big up front,” UConn coach Randy Edsall said, “and they run a lot of guys in there. You just have to be

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very good technique-wise and very good fundamentally. They have some big guys there that you have to try to move off the ball. You’re not going to be able to do it if you’re playing too high.

“That, to me, is the strength of their football team. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge for us.”

In springing Brown for his outstanding season in 2008, the offensive line proved to be the strength of UConn’s offense. Against basically the same North Carolina front last year, Brown carried 33 times for 161 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Zach Frazer threw for 210 yards as the Huskies rolled up 378 yards of offense.

This time around, the offensive line is different. Gone are Will Beatty and Keith Gray. Moe Petrus moved from guard to center. Mike Hicks and Zach Hurd are back at tackle and guard, respectively, with Dan Ryan and Mathieu Olivier getting starting spots.

What Todman and Dixon can do won’t matter if UConn’s offensive line has trouble with North Carolina’s defensive front. This is likely to be the game where UConn starts to break out the new parts of its offense.

“They’ve added some elements to their offense that they didn’t have last year,” Davis said. “It poses a lot of practice opportunities for our defense. It’s a significantly different challenge for our football team to go on the road and play against a much, much more talented football team than we played last week.

“It’s the first time for this team to play on the road in a visiting stadium that none of these kids have ever played in. It requires our undivided attention and total focus for this week.”

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